February 11th, 2005 at Motoyawata Route 14
Trendkill 2005: Chiba

Bands in order: Bang-Doll, LA*69, voMit, Levyeux Ont Desreves, XecsNoin, Ganeisha

This was Ganeisha's leg of the Trendkill 2005 tour; a tour commemorating the release of the Trendkill CD, which featured "trend-killing" bands from across the country. I bet you all are saying "what the f--- is Trendkill?" Well, last year Bang-Doll started it. It's basically what it sounds like, they're trying to kill the trends of the current visual scene by being different. Truthfully though, I think it's simply because Bang-Doll and other former Gio bands are too metal for visual but too visual for metal. In other words, they're pansies but think they're hardcore. I mean that in the most loveable way possible, of course.

This year's Trendkill is bigger and better, with a selection of bands around the country, one from each major city. However, Bang-Doll was not on the new CD, so were participating in the tour as an opening act. Ganeisha was the Chiba representative, so their event was at Route 14. I really was not in the mood for a live, especially trekking out to Chiba all by myself, and after hearing Trendkill the other day I was actually dreading it (it's um... not the best CD). But Bang-Doll was playing first and Ganeisha last, so I had no choice but to stay for the whole thing. Though it ended up being a lot of fun after all.

Bang-Doll, being the opening act, was obviously first. They started off with a recorded track of a male voice with some corny filters on it, speaking in English. He enthusiastically announced that it was Trendkill, and the Trendkill founders were Bang-Doll. Then "Onnnn drummsss!!! Hiroki!!" and Hiroki bounded out. Followed by introductions for Gou and You, and then a special, "On geeeeeetar... Takesh!! He is newcomer!" Yes, Bang-Doll has a new guitarist. They announced it two days ago, this was his first live with the band. They write his name T.K.S, pronounce it "Takesh", although it is just regularly Takeshi. They say on the website he is younger than Ikumi, which probably makes him around 20! Which um, let me say, is notably younger than the rest of the band. I have no idea where he came from, but he has the stage persona of a boy who has been in a visual band before. He's really adorable, actually! His hair is blonde and down his back, but he, like You, has it turned into a gigantic houseplant. Giant, giant hair. Everyone in the band was wearing some form of camouflage, and some article of the new Trendkill tour merchandise. Ryousuke for some reason had a hair-elastic with a big pink sparkly heart-shaped jewel around his wrist. Um?

So they were... oh hell, what can I say, they were Bang-Doll. They are always the most energetic rockin' band. Because they were only opening, they only played three songs. Kill em' Trendbastard, Rest in Pig, and Delaz. Seeing the dueling guitars in Delaz was pretty great when the two giant houseplants stood together. Takeshi is really awesome... I doubted they could find a guitarist as awesome and cute as Ikumi but I think they did. I like him.

Then it was time for LA*69 (from Osaka). They were actually the only band on the Trendkill CD I liked (besides Ganeisha of course) after listening to it the other day, so I decided to go up front and check them out. Oh my goodness. I think they are doing more than killing trends. I think they're raping them up the ass and having their deformed love children. Let me try to explain.

This band looks like it's comprised of four members taken from random bands that have nothing to do with one another. The vocalist has blonde spikey hair and blue contacts, and looks sort of like Hyde. He was wearing only leather pants (not even shoes), but was also covered in tattoos. His entire back one was giant mural, and his front and arms were randomly decorated. The guitarist they must have pulled from some American metal band. He has the sides of his head shaved and his hair in a big Mohawk houseplant, with ICP-like skeleton makeup and a long goatee dyed blue. He was also only wearing pants, and had several tattoos. The bassist looked like an Anarchist/Climax record dropout, with big red hair and a jumpsuit, also tattooed. And then the drummer is this super hot scrawny visual boy with crazy contacts, fishnets and very little clothing.

Get this image in your head now? Now cover the stage in random shit, like glowing skeletons, a big teddy bear, and a framed picture of some Indian guy. Then throw a couple hundred American flags in the mix. And have the band use the Star Spangled Banner as their opening music. Confused yet? Now imagine these four really badass tough looking tattooed dudes playing music that sounds like your average poppy oshare-kei band. Picture these badass tattooed guys jumping up and down, smiling, waving their arms to the music, and shaking tambourines with American flags hanging off them.

WHAT IS GOING ON???

They were the most fun band of the night. It was absolutely hilarious. I adore them.

Then for a complete change, we have a band called voMit. Where did they have to go to find such a band as these guys? Sendai, apparently. They were also mind-numbingly weird. They apparently needed a curtain to set up, so a bunch of roadies held up a black piece of fabric with "voMit" written on it. This band has five members, but not the five members you'd expect. Oh no. They have a guitarist, a five-string bassist, a drummer, and two members whose only job is to hide behind the amps and headbang. I AM NOT JOKING!! I would have thought they were roadies, except they were in costume and makeup. These costumes and makeup, however, are such as if you went to an all-ages goth night at a club in America. They were baggy black clothes, whiteface, with an explosion of eyeliner scribbles all over their faces. And of course, the mandatory scraggly greased up hair. I swear to god they were teenage American mall goths.

Notice the members once again. This band had no vocalist. Which I am thankful for. They were grindcore, and that's what they did. Grind, hardcore. I think if there was a vocalist thrown into the mix, it would be one of the most painful experiences of my life. However, much to my disbelief, I actually liked these guys. They weren't much to watch, because they just stood there and ground away at their respective instruments passionately. Although seeing the two hidden members banging their heads was pretty damn funny.

During their set I was emailing Ren (I was still paying attention!), and a giant fluffy object slides into the right side of my peripheral vision. What the hell! I say, and I casually glance over the side to see, oh, it's just a houseplant. Hahaha. So I watched voMit next to You-chan.

Now, this next band isn't half as interesting as the others. In fact, I wonder why the hell they're even on the Trendkill roster. The only logical explanation I can think of is that they're just a giant parody of a visual band, but I really don't think that's the case. Their name is Levyeux Ont Desreves, which sounds like some fake French I created to make fun of a visual band, doesn't it?? They're from Kyuushu, Oita precisely, and no I have no freakin idea where that is besides "very far away". Maybe Kyuushu just doesn't have any trend-killing bands and this was the closest they could find. Or maybe they were just the only band from Kyuushu they could find.

Either way, they looked like your average, run-of-the-mill old-school visual band. With rippy shirts and safety pins and feather boas and lots of eye makeup. They even had fangirls doing stupid hand dances. (Sure, only three of them, but they were there nonetheless). I think they were supposed to have four members, but one of them must have jumped ship, because there were only three. Two guitarists and a vocalist? There was a guy on the side of the stage with a box pressing buttons that I think made drum and bass sounds. The vocalist said "although there are only three of us, we are performing with the power of ten people YAAAAAAAY!" Cute, man.

With their first song, they had me wishing I hadn't gone to the front to see if I could take pictures. Because it was really, really bad. Bad enough for me to email Ren saying they were "the worst band ever", although I do say that a lot, you have to be pretty damn talent-less for me to say such. It was trying to be hardcore, and I guess they succeeded... Sure you could headbang to it, but if you were just standing there you'd realize it wasn't music, and any dude off the street could just play random chords and scream and it would have the same effect. They got better, though how much better is up for debate, because the music was good in the way that it was following the tried-and-true pattern of The Typical Visual Song. Know what I mean? You too can sound good if you play exactly the same song as every Matina band from 5 years ago.

So yeah, I don't know what the hell they were doing here. But the vocalist and his drag-queeny look made me love him because he was a huge huge dork. He was very proud of his band and was doing his best, and said they were a bunch of perverts (but not as perverted as Ganeisha.) And he said "venus", which never sounds correct if you're a Japanese person. Heh. Heh.

Next was XecsNoin. No surprises here, I think they always wear the same outfits (Peace Maker brand hoodies and such) and play the same songs. However, Zakuro almost made me pee my pants laughing with his facial expressions tonight. Usually he rolls his eyes and tongue around, but tonight he was insane! He bugged his eyes out further than I thought humanly possible, and his tongue was wagging around everywhere. It looked like he was possessed by a very hungry puppy.

Loki also had the funniest MC ever. He was talking about how with Trendkill bands, you can't do the stupid things fangirls do at lives. He meant sakuing, although he didn't say it explicitly, he kept fanning his arms out while saying stuff you shouldn't be doing. Instead we had to put our fists in the air, like the fight for human rights, or some crap like that. Then he once again had to stress that sakuing was a big no, so he said something like "So if you're thinking 'oh my god this is so cool this is so cool' and you just can't take it anymore,"... then he did the biggest, gayest saku ever while screaming "RYOUSUKE!!!!!!", followed by a "Don't do it!!". Pure comedy gold. Even funnier was that Ryousuke was at the back of the livehouse and screamed at him in return. We were in tears.

I thought the Okinawa band was next but I just don't pay attention and they weren't playing at all tonight, so I ran back up to the front for Ganeisha. Once again, looked the same as always and played the same songs as always, except their set might have been one song longer than usual, I'm not sure. Either way they were fabulous. Kaname will never fail to amaze me with his amount of emotion and energy. I took a little video clip of him, which proves why I have never gotten a clear picture of him. Because he doesn't stand still. EVER. There is one song, "undone", absolutely gorgeous song, where the entire band stands stock-still, and then he makes up for it by practically running in circles the rest of the set. They are just so damn good, augh! I also found out what their opening music is; it's the first song from the Pi movie soundtrack.

My photos for this night all came out absolute crap. Route 14 is the worst place to take photos. If the awful lighting weren't enough, the fact that the stage is not actually off the ground is the killer. This makes it impossible to get full body shots if you're not in the front row. Even the shortest fangirl will completely obscure most of a member with just her head. It's a damn shame.

At the end, I went to the back to grab Tracy a Trendkill shirt. Turning around from by the stage to look at the back of the livehouse was rather comical, because it was just a sea of big hair. Most of the band guys were now out in the audience, and none of them had taken their big hair down. Bang-Doll was manning the booth, much to my dismay, because that meant an inevitable awkward encounter with Ryousuke (who has enjoyed teasing me as of late). I was especially dreading tonight after not making a reservation through Bang-Doll, but Ganeisha instead (a big no-no, considering I've been a fan for four years and ALWAYS reserved through them)! I nonchalantly asked Hiroki for a shirt, while Ryousuke from the other end of the table, yells "Krys, Trendkill!" laughing and pointing at the CD. Ummm. I was like "Yeah, I bought it", but I guess I wasn't loud enough, because he thought I said "chotto" (which could mean a variety of things in vague Japanese, most of which have a negative meaning), and he laughed uproariously. I gave him a blank stare of confusion and he shook his head, so I pretended it didn't happen, gave a big happy otsukare, and ran the hell out of there.

Ohh I love nights like these.